Tony Abbott must have been relieved to leave the chamber on the last sitting day of the year last week. Source: News Corp Australia

Certainly it is a much rougher year’s end than the Prime Minister would like with a Fairfax Ipsos poll out today showing 57 per cent of the electorate disapproves of his handling of the job.

The findings have encouraged speculation of a leadership challenge after almost a year of gathering voter disenchantment had pinpointed Mr Abbott as one of the government’s enduring problems.

Tony Abbott admits he’s having a hard time at the moment. Picture: Stefan Postles / Getty Images Source: Getty Images

While a coup is unlikely, it is growing clearer some of Mr Abbott’s colleagues want him to lift his own performance.

Today the Prime Minister rejected suggestions he had created a “trust deficit”, as he once accused Labor of building, through broken election promises and declared his government had “substantially delivered”.

The Prime Minister said other leaders had endured difficulties and suggested his poor rating was the product of necessary political risk taking.

“This is not the first government to have a rough patch in the polls,’’ Mr Abbott told the Seven Network.

“The Howard government, the Thatcher Government, the Reagan government, all had rough patches in the polls.

‘Do you think Mr Abbott will get himself out of this mess?’ Former US President Ronald Reagan and Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher both had tough times in the polls during their leadership. Picture: Ronald Reagan Library. Source: Supplied

“I guess I’m not the first leader to be subject to a bit of speculation. But I think the public are also focusing on performance and this is a government that has fundamentally kept faith with the big commitments we made to the Australian people.”

The Prime Minister said his government had dealt with issues considered intractable, such as stopping asylum seeker boats. It had provided “ clarity of purpose and strength of character”.

“We, let’s face it, have risked considerable unpopularity because this is absolutely essential,” said Mr Abbott.

In a swipe at critics inside and outside the government, Mr Abbott referred to those “taking the glass-half-empty view if they wish”.

“But my job is to remind people of the achievements this year, and there have been achievements that people said were impossible,” he told ABC radio today.

Today’s Ipsos poll showed 57 per cent of voters disapproved of the Prime Minister’s performance compared to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s 41 per cent.

Both Ipsos and Newspoll have recorded Mr Abbott’s disapproval/dissatisfaction rating at as high as 62 per cent during the year.

He has been in the negative — more people were unhappy with him than happy — for most of the year.

Mr Abbott and his government gave been identified as one if the reasons for Liberal losses in the Victorian state election two weeks ago and in a South Australian by-election at the weekend.